The publications and other materials used herein to illuminate the background of the invention, and in particular, the cases to provide additional details respecting the practice, are incorporated by reference.
The use of reinforced composites made of particulate fillers or reinforcing fibers has gained popularity in dental and medical field. Recently, several inventions regarding the fiber-reinforced composites have been made. The state-of-the-art fiber-reinforced composites yield high strength properties and by selecting the multiphase resin matrix for the composite, the handling characteristics of the composite can be considerably improved. Such products are disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 6,197,410 and WO 02/100355.
On the other hand, a lot of development with bioactive materials, namely bioactive glass, sol-gel processed silica, hydroxyapatite and Ca/P -doped silica has occurred. These materials can be used to biomineralize the surface of the dentine of tooth, or to achieve attachment of bone to biomaterials surface. The mineralization of the dentine is used in order to eliminate the hypersensitiveness of the tooth due to opened dentinal tubules. The elimination of the hypersensitiveness occurs by sealing the tubules with apatite-like minerals by means of bioactive glass granules, for example. The biomineralization of the dentine takes several days or weeks to occur. During this time, the bioactive glass granules should be located in contact with the dentine. This has caused practical problems, because the bioactive granules need to hold on place with various types of materials, like surgical pastes. This kind of paste is disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,891,233.
Another use for biomineralization of the dentine is the use of bioactive glass granules as filling material of the tooth. The biomineralization hardens the dentine surface and allows better bonding of filling composite resins to dentine. In addition, the bioactive granules behave as antimicrobial agent in bone sinuses and in root canal.
The shortcoming of methods to use bioactive glass granules on dentine is the difficulties in application, as explained above. The currently used application methods of bioactive materials are limited in their use, mainly because the bioactive material does not remain on the tooth surface for enough long period of time, or when some pastes, such as surgical pastes have been used to cover the bioactive material, cosmetic and esthetic problems and discomfort for the patient has occurred.
In orthopedics, fillers materials as bioactive glass have been used successfully.